Maintenance of Sinus Rhythm Is Associated With Lower Incidence of Stroke in Patients With Drug-Refractory Atrial...

Recent studies have demonstrated that early rhythm control for first-line treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) improved cardiovascular outcomes. However, there is limited data regarding the long-term outcome of patients who failed antiarrhythmic drugs and who refuse radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA).

Patients with AF who were refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs and had refused further rhythm control attempts via RFCA were retrospectively identified and propensity-score (PS) matched with those who had been treated with RFCA. The primary outcome of interest was all-cause mortality or ischemic stroke.

A total of 169 patients who refused rhythm control with RFCA and PS matched 169 patients who had been treated with RFCA were included for analysis. During a mean follow-up of 4.3 (2.3;6.9) years, maintenance of sinus rhythm was more achieved in RFCA group (7 [4.1%] in Refuse group vs. 133 [78.7%] in RFCA group, p < 0.001). The incidence of ischemic stroke was significantly higher in patients who refused RFCA compared with patients who underwent RFCA (2.96 per 100 person-years in the Refused group vs. 0.74 per 100 person-years in the RFCA group, log-rank p < 0.001), but all-cause mortality was not significantly different (log-rank p = 0.8). Refusal of attempted rhythm control via RFCA was an independent risk factor for ischemic stroke on multivariate Cox analysis (hazard ratio [HR] 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-8.53, p = 0.02).

In patients with antiarrhythmic drug-refractory AF, the risk of stroke was significantly higher in patients who refused rhythm control via RFCA compared with that of those treated with RFCA.